Meesha moves SC over LHC’s dismissal of a sexual harassment complaint

By Muhammad YaseenPublished On 05 Jan 2023

Singer Meesha Shafi on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court (SC) over the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) dismissal of her petition challenging the decisions of Punjab governor and provincial ombudsperson, requesting the top court to declare LHC’s decision null and void.

The petition includes singer Ali Zafar, the female ombudsperson, and Punjab governor as parties in the case.

Earlier during the year, Punjab’s ombudsperson for protection of women against harassment at workplaces had set aside Meesha’s sexual harassment complaint against Ali Zafar whereas the governor had upheld the ombudsperson’s decision in July 2018, citing no employee-employer relationship between the two musicians, as did LHC in its October 11, 2019, ruling.

LHC Judge Shahid Karim had at the time remarked that there was no legal error in the ombudsperson’s decision to set aside Meesha’s complaint.

The complainant’s legal team, however, had argued that the ombudsperson, as well as the Punjab governor, had illegally dismissed the complaint against Zafar, whom she had accused of sexual harassment back in April 2018 on more than one occasion. They had also argued that the definition of a workplace in the Act — aimed to safeguard women — was not limited to women working day jobs.

It is pertinent to mention here that LHC rejected her appeal on the basis of not being presented at the appropriate forum.

It had earlier been set aside by the Punjab governor and the provincial ombudsperson on technical grounds as there was no employee-employer relationship and, therefore, the matter was said to not be in the jurisdiction of the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010.

Speaking outside the court a day earlier, Meesha said that the defamation case filed by Zafar is an intimidation tactic. “I bore the losses and [was] defamed and, as a woman, I suffered great damage to my reputation, as well as financial loss. It was detrimental to my mental health too,” she concluded.